Bhagat
Singh, a well-remembered revolutionary. But his struggle was not mere
anti-colonial or anti-British, his aim was to free the human kind from the
chains of exploitation and mental slavery.
- Keerthiraj
Bhagat
Singh along with Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death on 23rd
March 1931. Every year 23rd March is observed as Martyrs’ day in
honour of these revolutionary heroes. Present day India is well aware of heroic
rebel activities of Bhagat Singh. But most of the other talents and messages
given by the great hero, were forgotten! Today human kind needs Bhagat singh’s
values. Otherwise we are going to pay high price for ignoring Bhagat Singh. It
is not about remembering a day, but a bad memory can cost a lot in our future. Bhagat
was not only a revolutionary, but also a great political thinker, who thought
and wrote about Socialism, religion, caste, untouchability and other social
issues of contemporary South Asia.
Today
India is in an intellectual turmoil. Fake socialism and self-declared
intellectuals are busy in leading India towards wrong directions. A proper
study on Bhagat’s writings can be a panacea to most of the confusions and
problems faced by Indian subcontinent. Those writings revealed Bhagat in
different shades. At once as a political thinker of modern India, as a great
teacher of revolution, as a sensitive journalist, who cared about the system.
Bhagat’s struggle was not mere anti-colonial or anti-British, his aim was to
free the human kind from the chains of exploitation and mental slavery. For
example in 1928 Bhagat wrote two articles in a magazine called ‘Keerthi’. First
article ‘Achoot Ka Saval’ speaks
about the problems of untouchability, and the second article ‘Sampradayik Dange Aur Unka Ilaj’ deals
with communal violence and possible solutions. Recent studies and researches on
Bhagat’s writings, proved him as a mature political thinker. Professor Chaman
Lal, an expert in Bhagat Singh studies, tried to show light on mature political
thoughts of Bhagat. Most of the letters written by Bhagat were lost and some of
them intentionally suppressed! Bhagat Singh was not a blind revolutionary, he
had supreme ideals within him. Here I wish to mention about four selected
letters, which I think interesting.
Two
letters written by Bhagat in 1931, regarding the case of Mr. Harikrishnan.
Harikrishnan was a young revolutionary, who was facing charges that he
attempted to kill the governor of Punjab. Harikrishnan’s father, one among rich
and influential personalities of that time, tried to save his son from the
punishment. Defence lawyer tried to save Harikrishnan by arguing that his
client had no intension to kill the governor and he only wanted to warn! But
this move from the defence lawyer was severely criticized by Bhagat Singh.
According to Bhagat every statement given by revolutionaries must be supportive
to the goal of revolutionary activity. Statement by Harikrishnan’s defence
lawyer acted in such a way that whole idea of revolution failed. Bhagat Singh
suggested an alternative argument in the case, aim of revolutionary is not to
kill an individual, but there is no other way to overcome the problems of the
exploitative system. Individual losses are inevitable in the way towards liberation.
Bhagat wanted not only bombs and guns but also defence arguments, and even the
death of revolutionary should become the tools of revolution.
Another
letter written by Bhagat Singh to his father. During Bhagat’s jail days, his
father, Sardar Kishan singh sent a written request to the tribunal to save his
son from death sentence and argued that his son is innocent and he has no role
in Saunder’s murder. When Bhagat heard this attempt by his father, Bhagat criticized
his father very harshly in a letter. In that letter it is very clear that
Bhagat had no intention to offer defence in the court. Bhagat wanted his death
and sacrifice should become inspiration to further revolution. In spite of
great respect towards his father’s contribution to Indian freedom movement, Bhagat
consider the request letter sent by his father as a worst type of weakness
crueller than back stabbing. Thus Bhagat shows a great integrity in his ideals,
even though he had chances to escape from punishment.
The
most interesting, at least for me is the letter by Bhagat to another great
revolutionary Sukhdev. Comrade Sukhdev was waiting for the judgement of the
tribunal and he was quite sure that punishment would be life sentence. The very
idea that spending his life time in jail was irritating to Sukhdev. So Sukhdev
wrote to Bhagat, He is ready to death sentence or immediate release. But in
case of Life sentence, it is better to suicide. As a response Bhagat wrote a
letter to Sukhdev. This letter by Bhagat is a must read to everyone. In this
letter Bhagat realises his friend that only throwing bomb is not revolution.
But accepting punishment and sufferings are also the major part of revolution
and real meaning of revolution lies in it.
Bhagat not only wrote about revolution,
his writings on Marxism, Anarchism, Atheism and other social issues are also
serious attempts to review political and social issues of South Asia. It is
regrettable that we and our education system narrowed the personality of Bhagat
to a mere young rebel.
KEERTHIRAJ (krj492@gmail.com)
· Currently serving as a Faculty for International Relations and Political Science at Alliance University, Bangalore.
(This article was published in Central Chronicle on 23 March 2016)
